Poll panel seeks report on Trinamool MP's speech

The Election Commission Wednesday sought a report along with video footage from a Bengal district magistrate after Trinamool MP Sougata Roy allegedly urged party workers to capture polling booths.

Roy, the Trinamool Congress candidate for Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency in North 24-Parganas, allegedly exhorted party workers to "pay back the CPI-M in the same vein" while reminding them of the Marxist party's violent activities and booth capturing during previous polls.

"We have asked the district magistrate to hand over the video footage and submit a report," a commission official told reporters here.

Prior to this, the poll panel had put Trinamool Congress' Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mandal under the scanner allegedly for using offensive words to incite his party workers against the opposition.

It had also received a complaint against Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator Anisur Rehman for his alleged derogatory comments about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during an election meeting in Birbhum.

According to the official, the state commission forwarded details of these two violations of the model code of conduct to the central Election Commission in Delhi and is waiting for a response.